


Situational Efficiency

by sleepismyfriend



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-16
Updated: 2011-11-16
Packaged: 2017-10-26 04:12:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/278560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepismyfriend/pseuds/sleepismyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the UNIT lab, the Third Doctor is visited by, well, himself.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Situational Efficiency

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phantomlistener](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomlistener/gifts).



> The prompt was Three/River. A highly LOOSE interpretation.

By many standards, Dr Elizabeth Shaw was not a patient woman.

She sat on a wooden stool in her lab, staring at the experiment in front of her. It's stupid, she thought, waiting on this bloody thing to percolate and turn colours. She could be recording other lab results if the experiment would just cooperate in the way she thought it ought to.

It all started with an alien pod Alistair and his men had found while out on a field op. Despite cracking the hardened brown sphere open to the spiny thin fibres inside, neither Liz nor the Doctor couldn't figure out the pod's chemical composition. At the rate of their progress, she was beginning to think they'd never find the answer, though the Doctor quite assured her it was of an organic nature.

She stood, craning her neck while giving the beaker a chance to work without her watching. It began bubbling, but not so much for her turn around and claim success. As she sighed, the Doctor entered the room carrying a brown sack.

"How goes it, Liz?" He was far too chipper, she decided, as he set the sack down and turned to look at the beaker. "I trust you've added the right amount of water since I've been gone?"

"Every minute on the minute with an eyedropper, just as you suggested," Liz replied. She motioned to the nearby jar of white cubes and metal tongs as the Doctor leaned forward on the lab table. "Though, I'd really like to know what exactly you've added that will make the sudden difference."

"Oh, just something I picked up halfway across the galaxy. Does wonders in a scientific pinch. There's really been no response?" The Doctor bent his head to study the opacity of the cooking beaker.

"Just a few bubbles."

"Bubbles are good." He flicked the beaker with the tip of one finger, not allowing it to linger. "Means we're headed in the right direction yet."

The Doctor turned down the Bunsen burner underneath the beaker, and straightened. "We'll let that simmer a bit before making anymore adjustments."

He reached for the sack he came in with earlier. "In the meantime, the Brigadier was quite insistent that you and I both enjoy a bit of nourishment. I've brought lunch from the canteen."

"Is that so?"

"Yes." He opened the sack and pulled out two sandwiches, one of which he handed to Liz. They both unwrapped exactly half, "Apparently, he secretly cares about what happens to the both of us which I don't understand. He never needs to worry about me."

"You're his friend," Liz said. "It would be foolish to think otherwise."

"If you say so." The Doctor took a bite of his sandwich. They chatted back and forth while eating their sandwiches, almost arguing over the results of another experiment before balling up the sandwich wrappers.

"If you'll excuse me, Doctor; I'm afraid I need to head over to the medical ward." Liz threw her wrapper into the brown sack. "To check on a few things."

"Playing Geneva between Alistair and Dr Swanson, dear Liz?" The Doctor smirked. Liz rolled her eyes.

"Hardly. I want to see how our patient is doing. She's not shown anymore progress than this." She motioned to the beaker. "But there's always hope. See you in a bit."

Liz left the room, and the Doctor took the brown sack to the trash bin before turning back to the lab equipment.

"I'd better get started," he said to himself. It was several minutes at work as the Doctor changed the temperature on two other beakers, and heated up some liquid metal in a medium-sized crucible. He turned his attention back to the elusive beaker, and reached for the small jar of white cubes and metal tongs.

He began dropping several into the red solution, seconds apart to allow them to work their magic. "C'mon you. You may have landed on Earth, but I know you're something special. Work with me."

The beaker bubbled as the Doctor added three more cubes. However, brown pinstripes came into view from the other side of the table, and the Doctor lifted his head. A tall thin man in a brown pinstriped suit with dark spiky hair stared back at him.

"Hello."

"Hello. I'm afraid you've entered a top secret laboratory." He was trying to be pleasant, really, but he had learned from early on at UNIT that unauthorized entry would not go down well with Alistair.

"Really? Brilliant." The young man's smile widened. "I love entering top secret laboratories."

"I'm sure you do, but I must ask you to go. I'm terribly busy."

"Oh, I know. Believe me, the experiment you're running is quite tricky." The man examined Three's beaker, crossing his arms and scrunching his nose. "Are you sure you've got enough water in there?"

"Quite sure." Three's voice teetered on impatient. "I'm not your average scientist."

"Well, neither am I, I'm afraid." The man straightened, leaning back on his heels and shoving his hands into his suit pockets. He looked up and around the room. "You've got a biodampening field circulating this section of the building. Very nice, but without it you could tell how alike we really are."

His eyes met the Doctor's, and the corners of the Doctor's mouth turned upward as he slowly realized who was standing in front of him.

"As it would seem—" the Doctor paused. "I'm quite young in my old age."

"You really are. We're both quite fetching," the older Doctor smiled, straightening his tie. He motioned to the Doctor's frilly white shirt and green velvet jacket "Only you and I could ever pull that off."

The Doctor did his best to contain his amusement.

"What can I do for you?"

"A woman was brought in a few days ago? Cordoned off in the medical wing?"

"That's right, with a strand of highly contagious spores from Vralaxii 5. You understand I can't exactly have the Brigadier or Liz know the details. They would lose their marbles about the slightest possibility of flesh eating bacterium."

"Right, well, the spores are the least of your problems. A good ol' saline IV and some of the dark green lily bottle from the TARDIS will heal her nicely." The older Doctor shrugged. "However, this woman stole something from a friend of mine. Leather wristband, looks like a Vortex manipulator."

"Looks like a Vortex manipulator, or is a Vortex manipulator?"

The older Doctor hesitated. "I need to make sure that she gets to where she needs to be."

"Well then, I daresay you should go and get it from her effects." The Doctor leaned on the lab table. "And try not to embarrass yourself too badly along the way when you pass the Brigadier."

"How did you know--"

"If you're anything like me, which I have a niggling suspicion that you are, you'll want to make sure you cross paths and see how long it takes him to figure out who he's really talking to." The Doctors shared a look, in which the older Doctor conceded that his younger self was telling the truth and both snickered as the older Doctor looked away.

"Actually," the older Doctor replied, his smile dropping. "As brilliant as teasing the Brigadier sounds, this is something I need you to do. I've already met River out of the proper order, and can't risk her waking and seeing me."

"Magnificent," the Doctor sighed, rubbing his forehead. "Am I going to have to be careful about this later on? I do so hate creating paradoxes."

"You don't need to worry. Just enjoy your time here while you can." The Doctor noticed his older self's mood shift as the older Doctor walked the length of the table. He then continued to walk around the lab, touching some things while looking into beakers of others. "It'll be a long while before you stay in one place again."

The Doctor paused as his older self's eyes met his own. He wasn't particularly sure he wanted to know what clouded this Doctor's life, but it was obviously painful.

"I'll go fetch the Vortex Manipulator so you can be on your way."

"Thank you." The Doctor didn't look back as he exited, heading towards the medical wing. After a few minutes, he crossed over into the sterile corridors of the medical wing, passing several people, none of which were Liz. He figured she must have finished her progress check with the mysterious patient and headed straight for Alistair's office to relay information.

The Doctor was quite curious. Who was this mysterious patient that crossed his path not once, but twice in his lives, and his future self was vague on the details? Had he really endanger his timeline anymore than his standard of normal? He felt as though he was missing many pieces of this puzzle, but knew better than to ask more questions.

Because more questions tended to lead to more complicated matters, and there is nothing Time Lords dislike more than something comparable to the human headache.

"Excuse me, but may I see Jane Doe's personal effects?" He spoke with one of the younger nurses, the nurse motioning to the patient's room and quietly explaining that her effects were located in a footlocker at the foot of her bed.

Once the Doctor had entered her room, opened the footlocker at the end of her bed, and had the Vortex Manipulator in his hands did he stop and study the patient. Blonde ringlets fanned out on her pillow, she was most definitely of human origin, mid-40's by Earth standards if he had to guess.

Oh well, he'd eventually know the facts. For now, he had to be patient, which was never one of his strongest suits. On that note, he turned and headed back towards the lab just in time to see his older self pick Liz up and swing her around in a hug.

Liz let out a slight squeak as the older Doctor set her down. The Doctor could tell from the smile on her face that his older self had obviously introduced himself as she swatted the older Doctor's chest and moved away.

"Am I interrupting something?" As soon as the Doctor handed over the Vortex manipulator, the older Doctor pulled his sonic from his pocket. He pointed it at the Vortex manipulator, fired, and then shoved it back in his pocket as he finagled the settings.

"You were just teasing me with thoughts of the future," Liz smiled. "Of course, I don't care to be spoiled."

"You always were the more responsible one." The older Doctor looked up from his finished task, his nostalgic smile evident. "I've never forgotten that."

He handed the Vortex Manipulator to the Doctor. "There, all finished."

"I do hope you've fixed the problem," the Doctor said.

"Done my best. It's deadlocked so that when she tries to escape, and believe me, she will, she'll only have one place to go. It's all relative after that."

"Will she be alright?" Liz asked, and the older Doctor turned.

"Of course, I don't just send my companions out into the universe without some sort of plan," the older Doctor paused as Liz raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. "Alright, so that's never been my exact intention. Still, she'll be fine."

"I think I'm rather looking forward to my future," the Doctor laughed.

"As you should. But about that beaker over there," the older Doctor pointed. "I've added a bit more water, and some more of those cubes. You nearly burned the metal in the crucible when you left, so I made a fresh sample and added it to the beaker. Let it percolate for another hour or so, and then allow it to cool. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what you find."

Liz saw the Doctor tense.

"Oh come now, Doctor, we've been working on that for weeks. His help is most welcome."

The older Doctor turned, almost making it to the door when the Doctor spoke.

"Doctor, I'm sure the Brigadier would be a prize subject of amusement this afternoon." The Doctor turned to face his older self. "Perhaps, you'd like to stay a bit and test that theory?"

"Absolutely," the older Doctor grinned.


End file.
